Nursing Homes Cutting Costs By Hiring Undertrained Staff

Nursing homes provide long-term, 24/7 personal care for residents who are unable to live by themselves any longer. In many cases, staff members also provide limited medical attention. Because the care of your loved one is your top priority, you research nursing homes, conduct walk-throughs, and take your time in choosing the best nursing home for your loved one — in a perfect world. In some cases, family members must make quick decisions because of the circumstances and they worry about nursing home abuse.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. If we did, nursing homes would be staffed by the best personnel in the industry, but this is not always the case either.

Hiring Staff Members in Nursing Homes

We don’t think about nursing homes as businesses, but many are for-profit businesses that are looking to make a profit. Like any business, payroll is part of the overhead for the business. Payroll expenses for a nursing home can be costly. One way to cut costs is to hire untrained employees who are then underpaid for their services. On top of this, the nursing home only hires the bare minimum number of employees so that the facility is understaffed.

The combination of understaffed, underpaid, and undertrained can be dangerous and even deadly for residents. Let’s face it, when you offer minimum wage for a job that can be very difficult and demanding, you are going to attract people who don’t have additional training. You then place them in situations that require special training without providing them with that training. You expect them to care for too many patients without proper supervision. Why would the management and owners of a nursing home then be surprised when something tragic happens.

Duty to Protect Residents

A nursing home has a duty to protect residents by providing a safe and caring environment. This includes hiring trained professionals to care for residents and providing the additional training required to care for each resident. The nursing home should perform background checks to ensure the employees don’t have records of abuse of any type. The company should check the person’s credentials to make sure the applicant is not lying about his education and experience. These people are going to have the responsibility of caring for individuals who cannot care for themselves. The nursing home has a duty to ensure its employees are fit for the job.

If a nursing home fails in its duty to protect residents by hiring undertrained, unfit, or dangerous employees, the home should be held liable for anything that happens because of its lack of care in hiring employees. By filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit, the resident and his or her family can seek compensation for the injuries and damages caused by the nursing home’s negligence.

Call a Louisville Nursing Home Abuse Attorney for Help

We can help if your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse. Our nursing home abuse attorneys have extensive experience investigating abuse. We can help you file claims against nursing homes and other parties for damages.